Frisian Freedom in the Middle Ages led to a fighting society

A good talker was the young Frisian nobleman Eppo from Rinsumageest. We read this on his beautiful tombstone dating from 1341, which depicts him from head to toe: “He did good to his kinsmen with his words, as he could well.” The stone is the showpiece with which the new exhibition about the Frisian Middle Ages opens in Leeuwarden.

Eppo, in a typical medieval overcoat and with a knife and purse dangling from his belt, is one of the first medieval Frisians to have a portrait. He carries a pole vault spear in his hand, recognizable by the handy foot at the bottom of the spear. Sun double use spear is typically Frisian. With that you did not sink into the mud as a Frisian warrior, very quickly fierljeppend to battle. Pole vault spears were also in use elsewhere, but only in Friesland were nobles proudly depicted with them.

Frisian freedom

With this armed Eppo on his tombstone, the tone is set right at the beginning of the exhibition ‘Freedom, feuds and purgatory’. Medieval Friesland did not consist of peaceful peasant republics at all. It was a noble fighting society in the Frisian-speaking area, which stretched far east in the Middle Ages, as far as the River Weser. There reigned the unique phenomenon of ‘Frisian Freedom’. Poetic but deadly serious, it is described in a Frisian rule of law from the thirteenth century: “The Frisians are free, both the born and the unborn, as long as the wind blows from the clouds and the world exists.”

That famous lack of central authority did not lead to peaceful village structures, but to a warlike, strongly local feud society, says curator and mediavist Diana Spiekhout, near a display case with skulls split through. “There were a lot of rich people who all wanted to play the lead, and were not restrained.”

Anyone who could afford it and was not held back by the local community could build their own castle and argue endlessly with their neighbors about who was most important. Spiekhout: “A kind of mini-Game of Thrones it was, for local hegemony and the highest social honour. And the interesting thing is, it didn’t lead to anarchy. Those regular conflicts were shaped quite strictly by an extensive ‘feud system’ with clear rules of the game.”

Not gentle

This unique system is described in detail in the book accompanying the exhibition. When a conflict between two families got out of hand and the warriors involved went looking for their pole vaulters, first the peace had to be officially denounced. The subsequent acts of violence on both sides were also accurately recorded for the payment of the wergeld, per death and per injury. The leaders therefore had to shout “I stand surety” at the outbreak of the battle. “Such a feud was not gentle,” says Spiekhout. “You read in the sources that at the start of a feud sometimes the corpse of a murdered relative is hung by the fireplace to dry. That will only be removed when it is avenged.”

If such a feud lasted too long, the local mediators, the ‘conciliators’, would get involved. If they succeeded in their mission, all due wergeld were added up and, if possible, crossed out against each other. A feud that was too long could bring a wealthy family to beggars. Once that was all settled, the warriors swore a sacred oath to keep the peace and kissed each other. To avoid future struggles, young relatives were married off to the former enemy.

beer thrower

Legal rules also existed for minor conflicts, as can be read in the exhibition. A free Frisian who, for example, threw beer or water in someone else’s face, could be forced by the people’s assembly, the ‘thing’, to pay 3.5 shillings in damages. Such a beer-thrower could also swear that he was innocent. If others also swore his innocence, he had a strong case. And if the ‘thing’ didn’t come out, a ‘right camp’ could provide the answer, a fight. Usually the parties hired trained warriors, who fought the conflict among themselves with swords and pole vaulters.

Also read: In the Viking Age, the Frisians were less innocent than thought (2019)

These honor killing systems date back to the early Middle Ages. Elsewhere in Europe they were supplanted by princely justice. The fact that such a central authority did not get off the ground in Friesland is probably due to the fragmentation of Frisian land ownership. “There were a lot of small landowners,” Spiekhout says. “and I think the Frisian landscape also played a role in this.”

shaved hair

Neighboring princes, such as the bishop of Munster and the count of Holland, never proved strong enough to take on the Frisians for a long time. “That idea of ​​Frisian Freedom was very much alive, there was a deep aversion to central authority. That was also propagated, for example, by a typical Frisian form of shaved hair on men and those pole-stick spears.” Action was often taken collectively against attacks from outside, such as at the battle of Stavoren in 1345 in which the count of Holland was killed.

In the first large room of the exhibition, the weapons are displayed next to the legal lines: swords, daggers, parts of crossbows, a small round shield. Striking: an enormous replica of a happy, a pendulum catapult, built by modern secondary school students and immediately ready for use. The great Frisian wealth is immediately noticeable: beautiful medieval rings, brooches and drawings of women’s clothing in the open Manninga House book. “It’s wonderful that we still have these drawings,” Spiekhout says. “All that clothing itself has disappeared, and even most of the jewelry has melted down. But look at this: those women were just walking Christmas trees!”

squeaky rats

There was also a lot of prayer in medieval Friesland. The small rulers founded monasteries and churches, you can hear bells chirping in the distance everywhere in the exhibition. But in the penultimate room, the sound of squeaking rats dominates. The plague also struck Friesland in the fourteenth century, which in turn would boost religiosity.

The rough but surprisingly well-organized feuding society in the North disappears at the end of the fifteenth century. Traditional society cannot withstand the rise of professional mercenaries and firearms. Invited by one of the parties to an extensive feud, Duke Albrecht of Saxony invades Friesland in 1498 and establishes central authority there. That will never go away. Later the Habsburgs took over that role, after the Revolt the Frisian States took matters into their own hands.

Lost monasteries

‘And you know what is so striking’, Spiekhout says, ‘all those fortified houses and castles, all those more than a hundred monasteries: almost everything has disappeared. Partly because of this, we have forgotten what it really was like here in the time of Frisian Freedom.”

Those who leave the exhibition will see recommendations on the walls to see the very last remains for themselves, with or without the assistance of a free audio tour. Such as the unique fourteenth-century defense tower in Veenwouden, the very last ‘stone house’ in Bunderhee in East Frisia, Germany, and the Alexanderkerk in Runsumageest, where the talkative and tough Eppo was once buried. Medieval beer is also for sale in the museum shop.

Freedom, feuds, purgatory. The Middle Ages in the North. Frisian Museum, Leeuwarden. Until 7 May 2023. Friesmuseum.nl

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